Optimizing language teacher education: Teacher educators’ and candidates’ identity construction through reflection-based teaching

Prof. Anna Krulatz & Dr. Georgios Neokleous, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;     Abstract: Language teacher identity development is a complex and multidimensional process affected by both internal and external factors (Farrell, 2017). Acknowledging the impact teacher education programs have on teacher identity formation (Clarà, 2015), this paper examines how the identities of language teacher educators and candidates intercept and how explicit focus on reflection and teacher identity formation can foster reflective teachers. Two teacher educators (TEs) adopted reflection and teacher identity as a pedagogy, inviting eighteen teacher candidates (TCs) to reflect on their own teacher identity formation through structured reflective assignments that culminated in teacher identity texts posted online. The findings suggest that TEs and TCs identities intercept and influence one another in complex ways which should be considered when designing TC courses. Insights into TCs’ identity and ways to optimize the way language teacher-training programs are construed are discussed.

References

Clarà, M. (2015). What is reflection? Looking for clarity in an ambiguous notion. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(3), 261-271.

Farrell, T.S.C.  (2017). Research on reflective practice in TESOL. New York, NY: Routledge.